More young people wait for mental health treatment

CHEO CEO Alex Munter says government health funding needs to keep pace with the growing awareness of mental illness and the benefits of intervention, especially for youth. "That's the social contract. . . . If our message as a society is to seek help, we have to make sure the help is there when they need it."

They’ve made the first, frightening step toward admitting something is wrong, that they need help.

But young people seeking treatment for mental illness at Ottawa’s hospitals could find themselves waiting as long as a year to see a doctor, according to a grim assessment offered Wednesday.

Despite innovative programs and improved doctor-to-doctor and agency-to-agency communication, the city’s lead centres for child and youth mental health say long wait times — eight to 10 months for outpatient treatment at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, one year at the Royal Mental Health centre — are harming young people.

In the blunt assessment of Royal chief executive George Weber: “They further deteriorate — if someone’s got a mild or moderate case of mental illness and it’s not dealt with, it can move into severe.”

The hospitals say they try to see urgent referrals within two to three weeks.

Both Weber and his CHEO counterpart, Alex Munter, say government health funding needs to keep pace with the growing awareness of mental illness and the benefits of intervention, especially for youth.

“That’s the social contract,” Munter said Wednesday. “If our message as a society is to seek help, we have to make sure the help is there when they need it.”

The CHEO chief executive is hopeful that the share of health spending directed to mental health can rise to nine per cent from seven, as recommended by the Mental Health Commission of Canada in 2012. At the Royal, Weber is calling for increases to an annual allocation from the Ministry of Children and Youth Services that has been frozen at $3.3 million since 2007.

According to a report issued by the hospitals Wednesday, 1,195 children and youth are waiting for mental health outpatient and outreach services at CHEO and the Royal, up 10 per cent from 1,082 a year ago.

Visits to CHEO’s emergency department rose nine per cent, but outpatient referrals fell 11 per cent — a drop Munter fears could be a result of the long waits for appointments.

As well, doctors are seeing more severe illnesses. The Royal said cases of mood disorders among the 16- to 18-year-olds it treats jumped to 49 in 2013 from 19 a year earlier. Anxiety disorders rose to 33 from seven and cases of “suicidality-emotional dysregulation” to 35 from 14.

Moderate to severe substance abuse disorders climbed to 95 from 67.

Although “multiple variables” could be behind the increases, improved identification of disorders in the triage stage could be a factor, Weber said. “We’re getting people who are more complex and in the higher levels of acuity, which is a good thing.”

The capital’s once fragmented mental health services for young people have become easier for families to navigate since CHEO and the Royal were made jointly responsible for specialized services for children and youth in 2009. The collaboration has spread, with Ottawa Public Health and the Youth Services Bureau joining the two facilities in the Bridges program launched in 2013 for high-risk teenagers.

CHEO and Royal psychiatrists offer telephone consultations to family doctors treating patients with mental illness, and a CHEO pilot project called eConsult allows a physician to consult a psychiatrist for advice about a specific patient or question and get a response online within 24 hours.

Karen Tataryn, CHEO’s director of mental health, says such programs are a sign of steady progress, even if she admits that front-line workers may feel discouraged after years of rising demand that in Ottawa was at least partially spurred by a pair of high-profile teen suicides in 2010 and 2011.

“I think those folks would feel that help hasn’t come fast enough for enough people and there’s a price for that,” said Tataryn, also regional director of specialized children and youth services at CHEO and the Royal.

Yet she says she chooses to be optimistic about the ever-growing awareness of mental health problems and the community’s efforts to address them.

Waiting period at both hospitals for ‘urgent referrals’

-11%

Decline in outpatient referrals to CHEO

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